Election Day is a serious moment in American politics. New politicians are elected to important offices, policy fights are decided and the system of government is granted legitimacy by the participation of the people.
But a lot of weird things happen too.
Governor Jay Nixon tweeted a photo encouraging people to go vote. The picture went viral and had everyone cracking up before he took it down.
But there was another strong contender for photo of the day thanks to this Kentucky voter, who didn’t let ballot partitions stand in the way of a photobomb of Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Once people made it into the ballot booth, things got a little weird too. The famously inebriated (and fictional) Capt. Jack Sparrow of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” swashbuckled his way into the race for Hennepin, Minn., County Commission.
This ballot in Kansas, meantime, could have used some “arrrs” in the line for governor.
And of course, no national event would be complete without some wisdom from Kanye West, who waited to do his celebrity get-out-the-vote tweet until pretty late on Election Day.
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Write to Tessa Berenson at tessa.Rogers@time.com